MJLiverock

Houston - - one of the worst cities in America Cubs- - fans are jerks, stadium is a dump and there always seems to be infighting on the team Cleveland - - never been there but it just seems like Milwaukee v2.0 and honestly if I wasn't a Brewer Fan Milwaukee wouldn't be a destination I would want to go to. Baltimore - - i have friends from Baltimo' and even they hate it there. Tampa - - the city is fine but that stadium is just depressing. Nothing like going from a beautiful sunny day to inside someone's basement. Where would I like to play Seattle - - favorite city in America. The summer's are awesome and sure it rains in November and December but their annual rainfall is about the same as Chicago. Very nice stadium and city. Dodgers - - historic team, nice weather, no reall pressure because if the team is good then fans are happy, if not no one really gets too worked up. Texas - - Dallas/Arlington is a decent big city, nice weather, San Diego - - great mid sized city, nice ball park, weather, Boston - - a few years in the pressure cooker of expectations, history, and contending year in and out would be fun. All of the team to play for also are not precluded from winning their division by combinations of other teams, payroll, management,

ESPN and SI both talked about the unhittable Dice-K and how the "gyroball" was going to win him Cy Youngs. Of course that is part of the "charm" of ESPN, anyone the Yankees or Red Sox sign are supposed to be superstars. Sveumrules points out responsible people won't make ridiculous projections but that doesn't stop the hype machine from making irresponsible claims which the media picks up on. I just take any expectations for the Japanse league players with a grain of salt.

I'll agree there have been some good players but as I said few have lived up to their hype. Matsui was good but he was supposed to be Godzilla, smashing home runs and dominating. Dice-K was supposed to win multiple Cy Youngs. Fukudome was basically benched against LH pitchers. Kenji Johjima was supposed to be super star catcher. I would just take any projections of domination or greatness with a grain of salt for any of the players coming over from Japan. Very few have actually met or exceeded the hype. Doesn't mean there aren't good players just not quite as great as the stories project.

Kapler got hurt and was done for the year early in September I believe. Gross was long gone by then and really should never have been considered as a lead off option anyway considering he is the LH verson of Mench but with less power and worse against his platoon strength. If Counsell was playing that meant Hardy probably wasn't and he was probably in the two hole filling that spot. Really Cameron with a .330 is OBP wasn't that bad if Weeks was out.

Or countless other over hyped Japanese league players. I think Ichiro is the only one to match the hype and I"ll Hideki Matsui was acceptable but hardly the "Godzilla" some claimed he would be.

If you need to buy a cord or a battery check eBay the prices are much much better than buying from Dell. After my last cord got accidentally cut I think I paid about $10-$15 including shipping for a new one. I know when I bought a new battery since my old one wouldn't hold a charge anymore it was about $40 vs. the $80-$100 Dell wanted.

Exactly, there is no way of know what he was offered but that can go either way, he may have turned down good or bad deals. The only measuring stick is the team's record and he is has been mediocre. Many team's GM's have instanced of picking up guys from the scrap heap and getting a few good years out of them. They all throw a lot against the wall and see what sticks. It isn't as if there haven't been Trot Nixons and Jeff Weaver's that don't make it. I saw it mentioned that the next guy might be worse so we can't fire Melvin. That is a terrible argument to make. Just because a guy isn't the worst GM in the league doesn't mean there can't be anyone better. I'm not so mad at his failures as it is his seeming ability to bury his head in the sand and act like making tinkering little moves will improve one of the worst rotations in the league. Going out and continually grabbing back of the rotation guys and acting surprised that the rotation implodes and wears down his pen is frustrating or forcing his manager to ride Gallardo as hard as possible just to see a pitcher go into the 7th inning. His infatuation with blowing money on aging veteren bullpen help and then seeing posts trying to give him credit for the improvent in the pen when the young guys came up. If he was truly a good GM he would have been able to evaluate his talent and not wasted money going after the old guys and just brought up guys like Axford, Loe, Braddock, etc. Risk taking is the only way a small market team like Milwaukee can get over the hump and playing to just be not terrible won't get them into a contender. Claiming trades aren't there while other teams move players including pitchers is also frustrating. He seems to lack the creativity to make a deal happen if it involves mutliple players or teams. This idea of continually swapping minor pieces or grabbing scrap heap guys works when the talent level is terrible and small moves can build a team out of the basement but dosn't do much for trying build a contender. He deserves credit for getting deals locking up Braun and Gallardo but is it really just a crap shoot? I mean how many other GM's would have picked those guys to lock up as well. It wasn't like he was magic in foresight there. He has also thrown deals around locking up Hall and Turnbow which have blown up. The Hart deal remains to be seen but barring injury and given what he would have gotten in Arby probably won't be too bad. In sum his positives are almost equally matched by his negatives which is about what one would expect given the team is pretty mediocre as a result.

I know you are probably just looking for a silver lining but don't forget scheduling in that split as well. I didn't break down that second 120 game stretch but the Brewers did play the Pirates 12 times in those 120 games. Overall the Brewers were only 34-54 against teams that won 80 games or more. The team was a miserable 8-26 vs. the National League playoff teams.

I've had TDS DSL and DirecTV for service in Madison. I've never paid anything for my DSL modem or had anything tacked on my bill for the modem provided by TDS. When I moved two years ago they gave me a new modem when the guy did the install, (I had two phone lines in the house so he had to do some wiring to get the right ones where I needed them). They told me to just keep the old modem, they didn't want it back. I probably had that modem for 5 or 6 years without any problems. I don't know how often they updgrade but I also don't know how often you really need to change it out. TDS offers bundles with DishNetwork but I have always been a DirecTV guy since my first house when I was able to dump Charter. When comparing any of the TV service providers make sure you figure out how many TV's you will have and how many DVR's you want as this is where the big cost differentials can come in. One provider may look cheaper until you start adding in a 2nd, 3rd or 4th HD DVR option. I know in the past this made DirecTV much cheaper for me than Charter since I only had to pay the $5/month DVR fee once no matter how many DVR's were hooked up.

There are 15 teams with a protected 1st rounder, IIRC. The Sabathia loss was rare but losing Prince to one of 15 teams isn't that remote.

Don't forget Prince could be signed by a team with a protected 1st rounder. I" ll be disappointed if the Brewers let an elite hitter go for what amounts to a couple sandwhich picks.

And what do the Brewers have to show for Sheets and Cameron?

The defensive metrics are questionable today in comparison to the precision ways they are referenced, guessing at what they were 30 years ago is just that, pure guesswork.

I thought it was fine. I took it too be one of those facetious or sarcastic comments people make like after something finally goes their way like winning a few hands at black jack after losing, "Hey, I'm starting to like this gambling thing." I think you guys are looking way too hard to find something to complain about with JS.

AMEN!!!I saw this post and the reference to the fiercly proud Texans and had to laugh. A friend of mine came to WI for grad school from Texas, when he went home his friends all asked him if it was really easy to get girls since he was from Texas and commented on how cool everyone must think he was since he was from Texas. They were astounded when he said no really cared and in fact people just picked on him for being a Cowboy fan and the whole everything's bigger in Texas theme. He told me it never even crossed their minds that people really weren't automatically impressed with a Texan.

Exactly. They may be exciting compared to the previous Brewer history but it is still a long way from declaring the pitching woes solved. Only two of those listed may be starters, and one them has been in the bullpen all year and we are hoping they pull him back to the rotation in the minors next year. Rogers and Jeffress have potential but they also have plenty of question marks as well. The only immediate benefit I see is that it should keep Melvin from blowing $5MM-$12MM on signing aged middle relievers and "potential closers". The rotation is still 2 above average starters away from being considered good.

Fielder has not significantly underperformed. His season is right about average for him, not as good as last year but better than 06 and 08 and nearly as good as 07. since 2006 OPS: .831 1.013 .879 1.014 .903 wOBA .354 .417 .370 .420 .393 wRC+ 115 157 129 163 149 His RBI's are down this year but it hasn't really hurt the offense because McGehee has been picked them up. The only reason McGehee is approaching 100 RBI's is because Prince has left them there for him to knock in. Braun is about the only guy offensively who is underperforming expectations. Hart is definately outperforming, Weeks is doing better than many expected but may be able to keep it up, and McGehee is doing better than most expected.

He said the same thing last year, but they ended up making money. Since he made the most recent statement, they already saved $2 million by not signing their 1st round draft pick. Forbes has the Brewers as one of the most profitable teams in baseball on a yearly basis.http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/33/baseball-valuations-10_The-Business-Of-Baseball_Income.html The Brewers ranked 23rd in MLB for operating profits. Also marking the 4th consecutive year of a decline. The operating profit of just over $10MM is not necessarily the true profits of the firm since it does not include Interst Expenses, Depreciation, Amortization, or Taxes. Depreciation and Amort are non cash expenses but interest and taxes are very real cash expenses so Mark A. could be telling the truth that they were not profitable on a true accounting or after tax sense. What is true is the Brewers are not one of the most profitable teams in baseball and even after making the playoffs they did not see a bump in operating income profits. Their peak operatinig profit year was 2005 and has decline each year since, most likely moving opposite payroll as the revenue have been pretty much maxed out over the last couple years. Revs have been in low $170MM's with 3 million in attendence. I'd say the team right now is at about max payroll since they have whittled the operating profits down to $10MM which on $171MM in revenues isn't some sort of huge profit margin. A 5.8% operating margin is worse than most grocery stores, a notoriously low margin business, which rely on high volume to make money.

I forgot to add that he will lose 15% of his profit from selling the Brewers to Capital Gains tax, 20% if he sold next year and the Congress lets the tax rates jump up. edit: not trying to be political one way or the other, just pointing out the tax rate will bite into any profits Mark A. would have from selling the team. Cuban would be fun, he has tons of money but I would worry a bit about his meddling. He seems like the type of guy who would throw ridiculous contracts around to try and win right away. edit: fixed the rates as JeffreyScott reminded me - - my mind apparently had already jumped the rates to the older levels.

Mark had to leverge up as well as come up with partners just to buy a controlling share in the Brewers. I don't think he has enough coin to buy a controlling interest in the Dodgers even if he made a small profit on the sale of his Brewers stake. I can't find the exact percentage that Mark A. owns of the Brewers but Selig was listed at owning 28% of the team back when he controlled things with many of the same partners that own the team with Mark A. The team was valued at $350MM by Forbes earlier this year, assuming Mark A. owns 1/3 he would have $115MM of the theoretical value before subtracting any debt he owes which is not an insignificant number. I would guess a third to half his purchase interest was debt financed if not more. The purchase price of $220MM for the Brewers times his one third ownership would imply he kicked in $72.6MM if half was debt financed, he borrowed say $36MM. Paying off the loan he would have $115MM minus $36MM or about $79MM of equity to roll into the Dodgers purchase. The Dodgers value being kicked around by some is around $800MM+ which would require Mark A. to come up with some substantial money in order to buy a controlling interest. I just don't think he has that kind of money. Even if Mark owns more of the Brewers than in my example it isn't enough to come up with the $100's of millions he would need to buy the Dodgers outright and I doubt he wants to be a minority partner with little say in things after being the controllinig owner of a team.

Except the offense would likely drop to middle of the pack which along with the rotation improving to middle of the pack yields a middling low 80's win team.

I can agree that Braun and Hart aren't the greatest defenders in the world but I do agree with the gist of AKA Pete's post. Defensive metrics like UZR get thrown around a lot on here like they are gospel and used as an excuse to cover a bad pitching staff or to create things like WAR to come up with values for players. It doesn't take one too long to find plenty of articles on the web from some pretty savvy stats people calling into question the validity or accuracy of UZR. I think it probably works enough to give a person a general idea of bad, average, or good but when plugged into formulas to come with precise measures of comparison it falls short. Even reading blog postings by Mitchel Lichtmen, the father of UZR, has statements that leave me questioning how accurate it is. It is still a subjective measure on how hard a ball is hit, positioning, pitch type, as well as a certain confirmation bias that can leak in based on reputation of the fielder. I have yet to find that three guys are sent to each ballpark to indepently rate each play. I would be interested in seeing how each player rated for a game, especially to see if some plays are considered bad or misplays or great plays. Mr. Lichtmen fully admits he doesn't like to account for line drives in his calculations nor anything for arm strength or the first baseman's ability to catch or dig throws. The UZR calculation just assume an average for the number of balls hit into each zone that are turned into outs. This leaves a host of interpretation to the turning outs into outs basis for the formula. Rarely are two balls hit the same and with the same positioning of the players yet the formulas rely on X number of balls hit into zone Y being outs. If pitchers are constantly giving up balls into the hard to reach zones a player is penalized, fly ball pitchers tend to make it worse for the infielders as they have fewer chances to overcome errors. One stat head who questions the validity of the UZR ratings has a small discusssion of it here http://www.baseballprospe...icle.php?articleid=11476 Apparenlty, he has been a skeptic of their validty for some time but is well respected as having knowledge of stats and the game. I think the stats are interesting but not nearly as precise or accurate as they get tossed around. I don't think they provide the absolution of the pitching staff that is often insinuated either. The defense isn't the reason guys can't thow strikes or not give up bombs. In fact the terrible pitching may be making the defense look worse than it is on something like UZR. Being not great at defense and then coupling it with pitchers walking guys and throwing up meatballs makes playing defense tough.

Wow, that is pretty bad if he got tossed for heckling the opposing catcher, especially if he wasn't swearing up a storm or anything. Just further proof Molina and the Cards players are bunch of whiny you know whats, proving Brandon Phillips right.

I don't think anyone should ever take the comments in the Journal Sentinel seriously or as a good judge of opinion with thought behind it.

VooDoo Lounge is good, especially the rooftop. It's been a few years, like 4 or 5, since I was in Vegas but I liked the Shadow Bar in Ceasars to kind of chill for a while. Not huge, not overly loud, but big comfy leather chairs and coffee tables like hanging out in your own living room.